Political YouTube video in Brazil blocked by Google

By Latif Salman on 09/28/2012 10:07 PDT

Google recently landed in hot waters in Brazil when a court ordered the arrest of a Google executive. The verdict had been issued after Google refused to take down a political video from YouTube. The video apparently criticized a mayoral candidate in Brazil.

The company has long tried to uphold freedom of speech by refusing to address a number of take-down demands by governments from around the globe. However, sometimes the pressure may get, even to a web giant, which seems to be the case now.

After a Brazilian court issued an order to arrest Google’s country executive over the video controversy, Google filed an appeal against the decision. The appeal was rejected and now, bowing to the pressure, Google has decided to ban the video in Brazil.

According to Google’s head of operations in Brazil, Fabio Coelho, “Late last night, we learned that our final legal appeal has been denied and so now we have no choice but to block the video in Brazil. We are deeply disappointed that we have never had the full opportunity to argue in court that these were legitimate free speech videos and should remain available in Brazil.”

Coelho further wrote that despite this temporary surrender by Google, the company will continue to strive and uphold values such as freedom of speech in other parts of the world.